Sometimes, at night, I lay in bed awake and think about airflow. Should I be pushing or pulling? Both? Am I doing it right? Is anyone doing it right? You can imagine my consternation then, as Corsair announce two new PC cases straight out of topsy-turvy land. The Carbide Series 600c and 600q are ‘inverted ATX’ cases into which your motherboard is fitted upside down, with the power supply and drive enclosures placed at the top – all in the name of airflow.
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These two new models are the first inverted ATX cases on the market, with the motherboard oriented so that your CPU is closer to the base of your machine and any graphics cards facing the opposite way to what we’re used to, with fans facing upwards. They’ll still blow onto the power supply though, which is positioned at the top of the Carbide 600c and 600q.
The radical rethink in design aims to channel airflow more effectively over your hottest components – the graphics card(s) and CPU, rather than wasting that cool, cool, air on drive enclosures. Like so:
There’s room for watercooling radiators at the base of the case, and the area at the top of the case also houses all your cables to keep a tidier interior with fewer places for dust to gather. It’s certainly a departure from the traditional case airfow system, whereby a single fan collects all the dead skin and bits of food from around your house and splatters it uniformly over your components in a fine grey dusting.
The differences between the two? The 600q comes with sound dampening on the side, front, and top panels, while the 600c features a full side panel window so you can peek into your machine and make sure the roaches haven’t returned.
More details on both cases available fr $150 on Corsair’s online store, and are available now.